As season winds down and the National Championship approaches, it’s important for coaches to run deliberate practices, designed to help their team improve performance. PVF Orlando Valkries Head Coach, Amy Pauly shares what their practices look like in the last stretch of the season, compared to the early part of season, along with two of her favorite drills to improve her team’s performance.
Shorter Practices
Early in the season the team was holding one 3-hour practice, or two practices per day: one 2-hour practice in the morning focusing on individual skill and one 2-hour practice in the afternoon consisting of team centered drills. Later in the season Coach Pauly and her staff hold shorter practices and place an emphasis on player load management. Drills are primarily 6 on 6 and situational, in order to prepare for the upcoming matches. Each practice consists of serve receive, serving and side-out efficiency.
Serve Pass Drill: Servers vs Passers
In order to set up this drill you need 3 primary passers on each side, and all other players are serving from both end lines. The team starts at 50 points and the objective is to get to 0 points. A 3 point pass, which is right to the setter, means 3 points are deducted from 50; the same for a 2 point pass and a 1 point pass. An ace is +3. This drill puts pressure on the passers to pass 2 and 3 point passes consistently in order to reach 0, and not get aced. It also puts pressure on the servers to put quality serves in and challenge the passers.
Sideout Drill: First Ball Kill (FBK)
Starting Side (Side A) starts with a score of 18, trying to get to 25. Side B starts with a score of 21. Side B is always serving. Side A is always receiving serve. In order for Side A to score a point they have to get a kill on the first attempt (FBK). If they win the rally on any other part of the play, it’s a wash with no one scoring a point. Any time Side B wins the rally they score a point. It puts pressure on Side A to have a high sideout efficiency, which is critical to winning the match.
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